“ What the feelings were of that unfortunate one who had been valued by both the men at twenty-one pounds, one shilling, and a gold watch less than the other, I dare not think.
The strangest thing about these sales is, that the women sold seem to have rejoiced in the the change more than they lamented the degradation. In one instance in June 1766, this was so plainly marked, that the wife of a Rosemary Lane plasterer, who had been sold to a sailor for thirty-six shillings and a gallon of ale, actually hired a fiddler to precede her with a rude epithalamium to her new home. ”

“ Indeed, gentlemen, she reminds me of what the poet says of women in general—
Heaven gave to women the peculiar grace, To laugh, to weep, and cheat the human race. She can make butter, and scold the maid ”

“ It is well known that the Englishman of French novels, plays, and essays, is a different creation to the real being who talks upon 'Change, and rides after the hounds, on this side of the Channel. The former compels the first maiden he meets in a casual walk to marry him, after half-an-hour's acquaintance; he puts a halter round her next, and sells her in the cattle-market, as soon as he is tired of her ”

“ In 1788, there was a correspondence in the Gentleman's Magazine on the question, Whether a man could let his wife on lease? There is no instance, I believe, of a man allowing his Xantippe to sell him; but in 1736, a woman sold the body of her dead husband. ”

“ Thomas Buckley, of Birmingham The fourth sale I have been able to find was an expensive business to the purchaser, unless, like our American brethren, he calculated on getting something out of the 'incumbrance.' On the 8th of July 1805, a fellow at Tuxford took his wife into the market-place, with a halter round her neck, and sold her and the child for five shillings. ”

“ The husband, as auctioneer, put up the wife for sale, and requested the bidders to commence. 'Five shillings' was the first offer, then 'ten,' then 'fifteen.' The price continued rising until it came to 'three pounds', which last bid was made by the ostler of the Lord Exmouth. ”